The girls, in their underwear, move in slow motion through floating bits of down. Laughing. Smiling.

He knew it wasn’t real.

It was the smiling that tipped him off. The girls he knew didn’t smile like that. Not anymore. They were too frightened, or too burdened. Now every smile came with a heaping side of sad. Smiles were watery, or bitter, or brave, but never simply smiley.

His job, for years, was to keep those smiles coming, keep it light, keep ‘em happy. He’d lost the knack, somewhere. He’d fix the toilet, sure. But he couldn’t fix the underlying problem.

But... pillow fight! I liked how the show did this ridiculous male gaze thing in this scene, and undercut it immediately. The tragic undercurrent is never far away in this part of the season. Thanks for commenting!